Have you ever wanted to design a beautiful website but just didn’t know how? To be honest, a few years ago, that happened to me too. While browsing the web, I saw so many nice looking websites and wished I had the skills to create such designs. Today I can and I’m going to teach you how to do so too! Essentially, it requires a few Photoshop skills and an eye for detail. Through this tutorial, I will point out these tiny details which make a website design look beautiful. Fire up Photoshop and let’s get going!
Finished Website
Step 1 - Download the 960 Grid System Template
15 March, 2011
5 Top Web Design Trends: 2011 Annual Edition
2010 has been an incredibly verdant year for web designers. Mobile has hit the mainstream; Web typography has reached new levels of sophistication; New coding techniques have vastly improved our ability to get creative with design (without compromising stability). All in all, it’s been a year that’s moved fast, even by the standards of the web, so let’s dig in to our first annual post covering the state of web design as 2010 turns to 2011.
A Typographic Explosion
Alright, I guess you could make the claim that “typography will explode” each and every year… but 2010 has seen a few major changes to the underlying technology that actually make this claim legitimate. Primarily, the huge amount of growth of font-replacement technology over the last year and the mass adoption of “fonts as services” where third party companies host fonts (and licenses) that designers can use in live development environments. You could also say that designers are getting a lot more bold with typogrpahy as well… with more and more designs coming out lately that blur the line between print-4design and web design.
Let’s check out some examples (some using font replacement, others using other methods):
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 1
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 2
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 3
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 4
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 5
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 6
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 7
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 8
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 9
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 01
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 11
SubTrend: Print Design Inspired Sites
This was all the rage in 2009 – 2010, but the “print revolution” is alive and well on the web, and more and more sites are being designed to mimic great print designs, such as magazines, posters, fliers, and more.
Grid Intensive Layouts
Grid layouts aren’t new to 2010 (or even 1980), but web designers are starting to break away from traditional web layouts (header, content column, sidebar, footer) in favor of more unique, grid driven layouts. What started out with the 960.gs movement has quickly spread to grid systems that can actually adapt to the viewers screen resolution.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 7
Massive Images
Here’s another trend that’s been happening for more than just this last year. Massive images were once taboo for web designers, but thanks to better image optimization, faster internet connections, and smarter loading methods, designers can gain a lot in some sites by pushing image sizes to the max.
More than just “big images”, we’re beginning to see more trending towards sites that use vast illustrative (and photographic) backdrops that are as a part of the actual experience as they are simply additional artwork.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 7
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 8
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 9
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 10
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 11
Texture, Texture, Texture
Textures aren’t new, but as each year passes we see it being integrated in new and interesting ways. 2010 saw a lot of the “subtle noise” texture, but more than anything, we’re beginning to enter a style phase where more designs are starting to feel “touchable”. This doesn’t necessarily mean that big, file-heavy textures are being used… instead, we’re seeing more subtle, well designed textures that repeat naturally.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 7
Single Page Sites
Web Design Trends : Web Design One Page Designs
3D Environments
This is more of a novelty than a trend… 3D based sites are fun to use, but aren’t entirely accessible from some browsers and devices. That said, there are some fun new things happening in the way of three dimensional environments, so they’re worth checking out, even if you won’t be seeing them on your iPhone anytime soon ;)
Let the Discussion Begin!
Alright, so I’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg for all of the great trends happening in 2010, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m sure I missed something. Post your comments, thoughts, trends, and anything else in the comments section and I’ll be taking any really great comments into account when it comes time to edit this post later on!
Happy 2011!
A Typographic Explosion
Alright, I guess you could make the claim that “typography will explode” each and every year… but 2010 has seen a few major changes to the underlying technology that actually make this claim legitimate. Primarily, the huge amount of growth of font-replacement technology over the last year and the mass adoption of “fonts as services” where third party companies host fonts (and licenses) that designers can use in live development environments. You could also say that designers are getting a lot more bold with typogrpahy as well… with more and more designs coming out lately that blur the line between print-4design and web design.
Let’s check out some examples (some using font replacement, others using other methods):
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 1
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 2
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 3
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 4
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 5
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 6
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 7
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 8
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 9
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 01
Web Design Trends : Web Typography 11
SubTrend: Print Design Inspired Sites
This was all the rage in 2009 – 2010, but the “print revolution” is alive and well on the web, and more and more sites are being designed to mimic great print designs, such as magazines, posters, fliers, and more.
Grid Intensive Layouts
Grid layouts aren’t new to 2010 (or even 1980), but web designers are starting to break away from traditional web layouts (header, content column, sidebar, footer) in favor of more unique, grid driven layouts. What started out with the 960.gs movement has quickly spread to grid systems that can actually adapt to the viewers screen resolution.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Grid Layouts 7
Massive Images
Here’s another trend that’s been happening for more than just this last year. Massive images were once taboo for web designers, but thanks to better image optimization, faster internet connections, and smarter loading methods, designers can gain a lot in some sites by pushing image sizes to the max.
More than just “big images”, we’re beginning to see more trending towards sites that use vast illustrative (and photographic) backdrops that are as a part of the actual experience as they are simply additional artwork.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 7
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 8
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 9
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 10
Web Design Trends : Web Design Big Images 11
Texture, Texture, Texture
Textures aren’t new, but as each year passes we see it being integrated in new and interesting ways. 2010 saw a lot of the “subtle noise” texture, but more than anything, we’re beginning to enter a style phase where more designs are starting to feel “touchable”. This doesn’t necessarily mean that big, file-heavy textures are being used… instead, we’re seeing more subtle, well designed textures that repeat naturally.
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 1
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 2
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 3
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 4
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 5
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 6
Web Design Trends : Web Design Background Textures 7
Single Page Sites
Web Design Trends : Web Design One Page Designs
3D Environments
This is more of a novelty than a trend… 3D based sites are fun to use, but aren’t entirely accessible from some browsers and devices. That said, there are some fun new things happening in the way of three dimensional environments, so they’re worth checking out, even if you won’t be seeing them on your iPhone anytime soon ;)
Let the Discussion Begin!
Alright, so I’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg for all of the great trends happening in 2010, and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m sure I missed something. Post your comments, thoughts, trends, and anything else in the comments section and I’ll be taking any really great comments into account when it comes time to edit this post later on!
Happy 2011!
Creative and Inviting Food Advertisement Design Inspiration
Sometimes people choose to buying foods because isn’t taste, price or anything else. Some people including me sometimes buy a food because of these advertisement design, an unique creative and inviting food advertising design could make anyone who look at this ads interest to buy the products. There are a variety of way that food advertisements try to influence you, and food advertising is generally based around the factors mentioned previously. Here you’ll find a collection of brilliant and clever food ads that will be sure to make you look twice and admire the creativity. Download the advertisement design below:
Download Advertising Design
Download Advertising Design
The 960 Grid System
The premise of the system is ideally suited to rapid prototyping, but it would work equally well when integrated into a production environment. There are printable sketch sheets, design layouts, and a CSS file that have identical measurements.
12 March, 2011
Examination of Japanese Website Design Trends
Japan plays host to some very impressive website designers. Their skills in the arts cannot be compared and demonstrate a powerful digital force among Internet readers. Luckily understanding how to read Japanese isn’t required to admire their website graphics and animation effects.
We’ll be looking into a few Japanese website designs which have pushed the limits on conventional development. As a designer it’s a refreshing feeling to work with alternate design concepts and build your own unique ideas off these.
In fact, Flash offers so much extensible content you may be surprised at just what is possible. Motion backgrounds and animated menu effects are just the tipping point on many Adobe Flash powered websites. Intricate portfolio layouts and detailed characters almost spring to life off the webpage.
One overlooked misconception is the loading speed of each page. Because the entire website is Flash-based it will require a large amount of bandwidth to transfer and download all of the page content. This frequently leads to very long loading/splash pages which are a huge loss for potential user experience.
Although in the end it’s difficult to provide any judgement on the Flash-based approach. There are also many Japanese websites which are built off HTML5/CSS3 so I’m not categorizing all layouts as Flash-based. However with such a wide range of out-of-box thinking Japan has shown us a new outlook on envisioning the modern day website design.
In many new-age web designs we are seeing much more illustrated artwork and digital graphics. Icon designers have also integrated an enormous amount of hand-drawn effects into their works. Japanese website designs have become much more branded by the likes of mascots, illustrated vectors, and small page icons.
Similarly artists who offer these graphics showcase their work on many places throughout the web. Twitter backgrounds and Deviant Art accounts are full of some amazing illustrations from past designs.
Many of the websites coming to mind include innovative virtual worlds from video games. Katamari Damacy and Kingdom Hearts II specifically stand out as offering a very powerful user interface presence. The striking similarity between menu links in-game and on the webpages are resounding.
This can be seen not only for these games, but countless other series. The most common approach of course is an entire Flash-based website constructed through ActionScript events. Even so, other Japanese graphics artists are creating unique UI effects outside of just the video game industry.
These include shots of arial birds-eye-view photos from cities and taller buildings. Many times the background or Flash animation on a page will include common everyday natural elements such as cats, trees, cars, and entire human cities. There are neat user effects applied to create a natural mood (e.g. website colors changing from day to night).
These graphics of buildings and people can sometimes even be built into the website itself. The varied degree of creativity from Japan shows even entire websites using a small land mass as navigation for the entire website. Pages can be accessed via buildings, lawn signs, even blimps flying atop the page heading!
The designs are from a selection of varied topics and niches from a handful of time periods. If you have other suggestions for similar websites feel free to share them in the comments below.
We’ll be looking into a few Japanese website designs which have pushed the limits on conventional development. As a designer it’s a refreshing feeling to work with alternate design concepts and build your own unique ideas off these.
The Rise in Flash
Many of the most popular Japanese websites have been built in Flash, and this is no surprise. Although Flash-based websites do not rank very well in Google (at all) they offer a unique user experience which can’t be found anywhere else.In fact, Flash offers so much extensible content you may be surprised at just what is possible. Motion backgrounds and animated menu effects are just the tipping point on many Adobe Flash powered websites. Intricate portfolio layouts and detailed characters almost spring to life off the webpage.
One overlooked misconception is the loading speed of each page. Because the entire website is Flash-based it will require a large amount of bandwidth to transfer and download all of the page content. This frequently leads to very long loading/splash pages which are a huge loss for potential user experience.
Although in the end it’s difficult to provide any judgement on the Flash-based approach. There are also many Japanese websites which are built off HTML5/CSS3 so I’m not categorizing all layouts as Flash-based. However with such a wide range of out-of-box thinking Japan has shown us a new outlook on envisioning the modern day website design.
Animation Ignition
It seems the Japanese community is well renowned for their work in the digital animation arts. Ranging from television to video games it seems the artistic works meld into the islands’ society and culture.In many new-age web designs we are seeing much more illustrated artwork and digital graphics. Icon designers have also integrated an enormous amount of hand-drawn effects into their works. Japanese website designs have become much more branded by the likes of mascots, illustrated vectors, and small page icons.
Similarly artists who offer these graphics showcase their work on many places throughout the web. Twitter backgrounds and Deviant Art accounts are full of some amazing illustrations from past designs.
Custom UI Pattern
This is a common trend amongst web designers and has been growing rapidly. Many Japanese companies which involve their products in the entertainment sector have gone above and beyond to create a dynamic user interface to match their website.Many of the websites coming to mind include innovative virtual worlds from video games. Katamari Damacy and Kingdom Hearts II specifically stand out as offering a very powerful user interface presence. The striking similarity between menu links in-game and on the webpages are resounding.
This can be seen not only for these games, but countless other series. The most common approach of course is an entire Flash-based website constructed through ActionScript events. Even so, other Japanese graphics artists are creating unique UI effects outside of just the video game industry.
Elements of Physical Reality
It’s not too often we’ll see images of physical reality built into the most popular websites of today. This is quite the contrary of many popular Japanese artists which in fact specialize in building outstanding modern-day layouts.These include shots of arial birds-eye-view photos from cities and taller buildings. Many times the background or Flash animation on a page will include common everyday natural elements such as cats, trees, cars, and entire human cities. There are neat user effects applied to create a natural mood (e.g. website colors changing from day to night).
These graphics of buildings and people can sometimes even be built into the website itself. The varied degree of creativity from Japan shows even entire websites using a small land mass as navigation for the entire website. Pages can be accessed via buildings, lawn signs, even blimps flying atop the page heading!
Web Gallery Showcase
Below is a small collection of Japanese website designs. These include mostly Flash pages with animation effects and custom UI elements. If you’re looking for design inspiration this may be one of the most creative and “out-there” galleries.The designs are from a selection of varied topics and niches from a handful of time periods. If you have other suggestions for similar websites feel free to share them in the comments below.
Nestle
Eye Talk Town
Egao Saku
Hiroto Rakusho
Love Happy
kids wonder project
Naruhodo Agent
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